This is the archive of Irish Publishing News, a site that was published actively from 2011-2013.
No new pieces will be published here. Please treat information contained on the site in that fashion, it may be outdated or inaccurate because of the passage of time.

About the author

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When the Amazon Kindle e-reader finally became available in Europe last November I ordered one straight away. For the last couple of years I had held out against buying an e-reader like the Sony Reader because unlike the Kindle, it could not download books wirelessly from the Amazon website. With many e-readers you must download books from a website on to your computer, and then transfer the books using a USB cable from your computer to your e-reader. With Amazon’s Whispernet the books fly through the ether and straight in to your Kindle.

Well, that’s the theory. Unfortunately, by December Whispernet stopped working on my Kindle and I am due a replacement any day now. I delayed doing anything about it over Christmas because I had downloaded quite a few books anyway and was too busy to chase it up. Amazon’s customer service was extremely courteous and obliging, but quite confusing to use. I kept getting emails with different instructions from different people, but anyway a new Kindle is now on its way to me. I can keep the old one for 30 days before sending it back so meanwhile I can keep on reading.

Whispernet aside, I love the Kindle. I usually read several books at once and I really like having them all in one place. I still read paper books – I got some books for Christmas – but I now prefer reading on the Kindle.

I find it easier to hold the Kindle than a paper book and it is child’s play to change the font size. The layout is good and navigation is intuitive. There is a page-turn button on each side; and a back button that will bring you back to the previous item. There is also a previous-page button.

Overall, I love it even though there are many things that I would change about it. Would I buy another one if this one went missing – definitely.

Good points:

Easy to read – paper ink works very well and there is no noticeable eye strain.
Easy to turn pages.
Easy to download free sample chapter from Amazon.
Easy to buy books from Amazon.
Most books relatively cheap, about €7.
Easily fits in handbag.
Print size easy to change.
Great having a selection of books to choose from.
If someone else in your household has a Kindle, you can share your book library.

Bad points

Many Amazon books are not available to readers outside the US.
I found Whispernet internet connection to Amazon store was frequently unavailable and then failed altogether on my Kindle.
No cover supplied.
Shipped from US with US type plug – come on!
Cries out for touch-screen. It would make the space used by the keyboard at the bottom available for the reading screen.
Cannot lend books bought to other people unless they are one of your four nominated Kindle users.
Because there is no backlight you need the same type of light that you do for a paperbook. But a clip-on light works very well.
No free books available from Amazon outside the US.